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40
year after birth. It is true that re-vaccination has been there
made compulsory as well as primary vaccination, but we think
the experience of Germany is not without its bearing on the
question we are now considering. Wherever the line is drawn,
whether at three months or six months, it will always leave a
class of unvaccinated persons. The age to be fixed is a question
of policy into which many considerations must enter. If the
extension of the age within which vaccination was required
rendered its untoward incidents fewer in number, and diminished
hostility to the operation, it may be that on the whole it would
promote the cause of vaccination, and secure, as its result, that
the number of vaccinated persons would be greater than at
present.
The truth is that it is only when an epidemic breaks out in
any place that the vaccination of very young children becomes
a question of grave importance. An epidemic in not likely to
originate, nor in its early days to grow, owing to the non-vaccination of that class.
Great care should be taken with regard to vaccination, and
abrasion of the vaccination vesicles by clothing of a nature likely
to irritate them should be avoided, and that foreign substances
should not be rubbed into the wounds under circumstances
calculated to set up inflammation.
The Commission also point out the advantage of the children
being vaccinated at home, so that they be not brought to a
Vaccination Station and so exposed to inclement weather.
Moreover, any dangerous insanitary surroundings would be
brought to the notice of the medical man and could thus be
rectified, for it is well known that insanitary surroundings
often set up septic changes in any wound.
Again, they say, vaccination ought to be postponed when
erysipelas, scarlet fever, measles, or chicken-pox are prevalent
in the neighbourhood of the child's residence:—
If provision could be made in cases in which insanitary conditions
would cause risk to a child, if it remained at home whilst
the vaccination wound was unhealed, for its removal elsewhere
during that period, we think it would be desirable.
We think that the vaccination vesicles should not be opened
unless for some adequate reason. We have already said that in
our opinion the importance of this has been exaggerated, but the
precaution is nevertheless a wise one, and may be of use.
We think that safety would be increased by preserving the
lymph in tubes instead of on " dry points." There is some
difference of opinion on this matter amongst those with whose
opinions we have been furnished. On the whole, however, we
think the weight of experience as well as reason is in the direction
we have indicated.
In connexion with this subject, our attention has been drawn
to the experiments recently made by Dr. Copeman as to the
effect of the storage of vaccine lymph in glycerine. The conclusions
at which he arrives are that the addition of glycerine,
whilst it leaves the efficacy of the lymph undiminished or even